Planet Tapout 8.28.07: In Defense of the UFC...
Posted by Lotfi Sariahmed on 08.28.2007
After Randy Couture's win over Gabriel Gonzaga Saturday night, everyone is wondering what's next. With the Russian man beast still a free agent, fans are salivating over a bout between Fedor Emelianenko and "The Natural." So why hasn't the UFC finished the deal yet? Not so fast. In the latest edition of Planet Tapout, Lotfi Sariahmed delves into the business aspects of the situation! All that and more in the latest edition of Planet Tapout!
Welcome to the MMA column that doubles as a College Football Column starting Friday! I am Lotfi Sariahmed and this is your guilty little pleasure called Planet Tapout. No mailbag this week because undoubtedly you are just as in awe as I am of Randy Couture's performance. But lets just say something does pop into your head over the next week. Run with it. Send me your thoughts, musings, love, hate, recipe ideas or otherwise to PlanetTapout@gmail.com . Now lets dance.
Allow me to echo the sentiments of one MMA journalist who said it would be unjust to really cover anything else in your respective column other than the Randy Couture win. But since Mr. Oliver already summed up my thoughts in his piece on Couture, I figured I'd give you something shorter before going into this week's column.
Don't get me wrong; I picked Couture to win this fight. If for nothing else than I knew I couldn't bet against Couture…at least not yet. But after his performance against Gabriel Gonzaga Saturday night I am still in awe of him. It's funny because I tried to legitimately come up with a type of fan who doesn't like Couture and I couldn't do it. Who could dislike this man? If you don't like him let me know and tell me why. PlanetTapout@gmail.com . Maybe there's something I'm missing. It's been a pleasure to watch him fight and hopefully we'll see him in a few more big fights before he hangs up the gloves.
How's that for a dream bout?
Now if that wasn't a good transition I don't know what is. Even though we're only about 72 hours removed (depending on when you're reading this) from the heavyweight title fight everyone wants to know what's next. This is just what all sports have become given our advances in technology and 24-hour a day news/sports coverage. So let's do some prognosticating shall we?
"Cro Cop" can't challenge him for the belt next. He has to beat Kongo at UFC 75 then beat "Minotauro" Nogueira in another bout down the road. Nogueira can't fight Couture next either. If he tore apart Herring at UFC 73 he'd have a better leg to stand on. However, he looked mediocre. While I greatly respect his resume, he shouldn't be the next guy to fight Couture either. The only other three candidates are Tim Sylvia, Brandon Vera and Andrei Arlovski. Can you make a solid case for any of those three fighters to be next in line for a heavyweight title shot?
So that brings us to the Trump card if you will. The man we call Fedor. Is he coming to the UFC? Will the UFC give him the money he deserves? When is this all going to happen? Could the fans miss losing out on Fedor v. Couture just because of combat sambo? Why can't the UFC just bring in some other Red Devil fighters if they get Fedor?
Of course there are dozens of questions that come from the UFC negotiations with Fedor and many of them ask why hasn't this been done already? No one outside of the UFC, Fedor and Fedor's management team will ever know the complete truth behind these negotiations. So all any of us could do is speculate at best and go off of rumors.
But what we do know is this. The UFC has the most money to play with and could offer Fedor the most financially lucrative contract possible (and it has been reported they already have). On top of that, given Fedor's status as the best pound for pound mixed martial artist in the world, the UFC should do anything to bring this guy into the fold. Right? Well not really.
Reportedly Fedor is looking to still be able to compete in Combat Sambo in Russia even if he signs the contract with the UFC. On top of that Vadim Finkelstein, the main man behind the Fedor Empire, has said he doesn't want Fedor to come alone. Finkelstein wants fighters from Fedor's Red Devil camp to go to the UFC with him. And because so many things come in threes, Finkelstein also said he'd like to be a part of the UFC's plans on promoting in Russia.
This is Fedor Emelianenko. He is the best fighter in the world. He has to face the best competition in the UFC so it needs to give Finkelstein everything he wants right? Wrong again. While Fedor is an incredible talent the UFC should not bend over backwards to bring him in. The fact of the matter is, the UFC doesn't NEED Fedor. For the best fighter in the world to retain that title, he NEEDS the UFC.
Blasphemy you say! Well is it really? Lets play a game for a moment shall we? If you're leading the Fedor negotiations for the UFC think about a few things. You're offering this man a boatload of money to fight in your promotion. Do you really want to risk losing him to some injury he suffered in Combat Sambo? Just imagine if he's set to face Cro Cop on the New Year's Eve show and all of a sudden had to pull out because of an injury he didn't suffer in the UFC. Yep, that would go over well. I don't care if he's only fighting once or twice a year. I'm protecting my assets.
Lets jump to demand #3 from Finkelstein. We'll get back to #2 in a second. If you were Dana White, why in the WORLD would you want someone else jumping in to mooch off your success? Because that's essentially what Finkelstein would be doing trying to promote with the UFC in Russia. Congratulations, you landed the best fighter in the world. Now take your 10% or whatever the agreed upon service fee is and stay out of my promotion. I don't care what he does with his Russian promotion but he's trying to strong-arm the UFC with this move to cash in on their hard work.
Now lets move back to demand #2. Finkelstein wants other Red Devil fighters to be brought in along with Fedor. Now there's an idea that not only helps Finkelstein, but the UFC as well. The Red Devil group is home to a bunch of very good fighters. There's no reason the UFC couldn't bring in some fighters to help bolster their weak middleweight division. Then there's also the WEC, which could definitely use a boost. Sherdog's Fight Finder has 37 fighters listed as being part of the Red Devil team. If negotiations go accordingly, Zuffa could pick and choose whom they need and where they'd go.
But the point behind this entire thing is that the UFC has most of the power. Sure, Fedor would be nice to have so that way he could be Couture's next opponent. But to hold the UFC at gunpoint through these negotiations is asinine. I'm sure the UFC could offer Josh Barnett nearly just as lucrative of a deal and he'd be a great opponent for Couture. And while you wouldn't want to go to Arlovski as a stopgap challenger it's not the worst thing in the world. So while everyone wants to blame the UFC and Zuffa for being the "Devil" (pun only sort of intended), they're not really in the wrong here.
Miscellaneous Musings!
● So Frank Mir won putting his only permanent career as WEC color guy on hold at least for a little while. I don't know about you, but I'm rooting for him. Yes he's come into fights heavy and looked lethargic at best at times. But if he could just put a couple of fights together this is another very good heavyweight in that division. Maybe Saturday nights' win over Antoni Hardonk will mean nothing in the long run. But here's to hoping he starts putting together some wins. If Tim Sylvia loses to Brandon Vera at UFC 77, would it be too soon to put Mir against "The Maine-iac?" Probably. But that's just one potential fight that a lot of fans would want to watch.
● If you look at the payouts for UFC 74, Clay Guida was paid $14,000 for his win over Marcus Aurelio. As for Aurelio he was paid $30,000 in the loss. Am I the only one who finds that funny?
● You have to feel good for Patrick Cote picking up a win over the taller Kendall Grove Saturday night. He said after the fight he wanted to face the winner of the Chris Leben v. Terry Martin fight. Barring Leben getting his head on straight I think a Martin v. Cote match would be great.
● I started asking how could you dislike Randy Couture. I don't think even the most ardent Matt Hughes supporter could dislike St. Pierre either. Sure his antics following the Serra fight were less than amazing. But he's consistently said that was a tough time for him and sometimes you just have to give a guy a break. Now he should be next in line for the winner of the Serra v. Hughes winner. While a third GSP v. Hughes match would be a big seller, I think GSP v. Serra could be the more interesting fight. But I'll delve into that explanation when we get closer to that fight.
This Week in Fight Picks! Art of War 3!
Jeff Monson over Pedro Rizzo
Jeremy Horn over Jorge Santiago
That's it once again for another week of Planet Tapout! As always you can send me your thoughts, befuddled or otherwise, to PlanetTapout@gmail.com .
Make sure you come back next Tuesday for another edition of the Planet! This week in MMA gives us Art of War 3 here in the states. Jeremy Horn taking on Jorge Santiago and Jeff Monson taking on Pedro Rizzo highlights the card. Enjoy the fights everybody.
